Cushioning devices are often used in fluid jacks to reduce or dampen inertia loads at the end of stroke movement of the piston. Such devices generally function by trapping fluid in a chamber as the piston approaches the end of the cylinder and controllably bleeding the trapped fluid from the cylinder. Such devices are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,112 issued to E. V. Leshovec et al on Dec. 27, 1977, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,254 issued to Eginhard Jaeger on Aug. 23, 1977; and German Patent No. 2,705,836.
The components of the heretofore known cushioning devices have been included as integral portions of existing major components of the fluid jacks. Thus, providing a cushioning device for a specific fluid jack required redesigning some of the major components of the fluid jack. Further, to insure proper alignment of the mating parts requires exacting machining tolerances and consequently more precise machining of the components. Finally, in some designs, replacing a damaged component of the cushioning device also requires replacing one of the major components of the fluid jack.